Hope in the deep
by hflores74
Summary: Kirito tried to runaway from the real world, since he found out the truth, that his parents were actually his aunt and uncle, that his real parents were dead and buried. In the game of Sword Art Online, he found a new sort of family but he would one day form a family of his own.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Sword Art Online in any format, this is a fan fiction

The truth hit Kazuto like a ton of bricks, he had been living with his aunt the entire time, and this family had been lying to him the entire time. He had to find out buy making his own computer and earning his own money by making money by filling forms for a local computer company, he actually was one of the best employees that the company ever had, and as he continue to work he earned a lot of respect from the people of the company._**  
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As a gift for the long hours he placed he was given a very special nerve gear, this one did not need wired or to be connected to an outlet or be recharged, it was said the thing was made by the creator of the nerve gear thinking that this would allow people to play longer, but the thing was too expensive to mass produce so it sat on a shelf right next to another one just like it.

The owner of the company gave it to him, with the blessings of it's creator, Kayaba Akihiko. He was so happy to receive it, Kirito was a major fan on the way Kayaba did his programing and his development of the nerve gear. When he announce to the world that he was making the first ever true virtual MMO, Kirito made a deal with the owner of the company, he said that he would work for free for a month if he gave him a copy of the game and access to it as soon as it was ready.

For the owner it was a pretty nice deal, he would save a lot of money and the game would be practically free for him since his company made it. As the month finally came to an end Akihiko himself presented him with his copy of the game. It was going to be launched and he would be one of the 100 beta testers, he told the company owner that he would spend as much time as he could, and try to find all the bugs in it, so that the game would be a success.

Kirito was the name of the character he made, and Kirito was known to be one of the most ruthless fighters during the beta, he managed to clear 90 floors of the 100 floor castle. His family worried that he was spending too much time in the game, and too little time taking care of himself. But as the month long beta was coming to an end, he met someone he never expected to meet, a golden dragon, and the dragon talked to him.

"You love this place, don't you invader. You enjoy being in our world so much you hardly leave it, So why don't you become a resident of this world and be happy? I can give you that chance but the only thing you need to do is to manage to touch the top of my head. But I will not make it easy for you, I will evade all the time, so are you up for it?"

Kirito was an expert swordsman, he could use any sword, be it double handed to single handed, from using only one hand to dual wielding a pair of swords. He took on the challenge and after three long days he won, and that was when the dragon kissed him on the forehead. Where the dragon kissed him a crest appeared and a light wrapped around him and finally when it stopped Kirito was fast asleep, inside a massive egg.

The dragon was named Alicia, and she had done something not one of her kind ever tried before, she adopted him as her own son. In the real world Kazuto went into a deep comma, nothing the doctors tried could wake him. The company told them that they would pay for his hospital and medical bills, it was the least they could do, for their most respected employee.

In the game Kirito forgot about his life before, and he was born form the egg as a small dragon, and he and his mother lived together. Alicia was a very caring, and supportive parent, with her he learned to take a human form to be able to be in the towns and not scare the people, or cause one of the invaders to try and challenge him for a few scales of his body.

Within monster society was a position of honor and that was to be in the castle guard for the red king, no one saw him or even talked to him, but he had his ways to make sure the people that served him knew exactly what he wanted, and his word was law. Kirito ented as a low squire and in less than a year he managed to be the Commander of the castle guard, and the best warrior to serve the red king.

The black knight was the right hand man of the Red King, and everyone in the castle knew two truths. The first was that the Black Knight did not appear unless there was a problem that had angered the Red King enough that he wanted this person to suffer the consequences of his actions, and the second truth was if you decided to fight against the Black Knight he would show you no mercy, and it would end in your death.

The Black knight was his chief of the guard, his enforcer of his laws, and the one to pursue criminal bosses that believed that they could do whatever they wished, and the King would never notice, the Red King would always notice. Case in point there was this criminal group that tried to get money from the merchants in the many commerce districts on the higher floor towns.

They threaten them with everything from ruining their reputation to actually causing physical harm to their loves ones. When the Red King found out that someone was extorting the merchants of five towns, on the higher floors of the castle. He screamed for the Black Knight to do something about it, or so help the castle he would, and everyone that was even slightly connected to this criminals would die.

Kirito in his black armor, you could not even see his eyes, the whole armor had an almost intimidating feel over it, and he used it with great precision. He walked towards the merchants that were being threatened and he demanded to know who was demanding money for protection from harm, that he threatened to cause. One merchant knew the identity of the criminal boss, but he did not want to say who it was, it was his brother in law after all.

Kirito was not going to take a no as an answer so he took out his sword and put it on the man's kitchen table. "Refusal to answer is high treason, and the punishment for high treason is the death of everyone in the family of the traitor, so let's try this once more. Who is the scumbag who is threatening the merchants in this town and the towns on the floor about this one and below?"

The man did not want to say who it was and at this time his own daughter arrived from the market with some groceries. Kirito saw that he needed to make sure the point was well understood and that he was not kidding around. With his sword in hand he pointed at the man's daughter and held his sword ready to strike and as the sword came down, the man screamed that it was his brother in law, his wife also came and could not believe it, her brother was the one that was threatening the business on their town.

He put away his sword and walked away without saying a word, but the woman begged him to at least listen to her brother before punishing him, that he must have a good reason, her brother was a kind man, there must be something that forced him to do that. "There is no worse case of blindness, than the person who refuses to see."

He walked into her brother's house and kicked the door open. It was clear that the man was drinking heavily. "Black Knight, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, come right in. Join me for a friendly drink, relax." Kirito told him that he knew that he was the crook demanding money from the merchants. "So one of these worms, finally grew a backbone, true I demanded money or I would make them see hell, so what of it? I am not sorry one bit, and there is nothing that you can do to make me stop, as soon as I find the snitch I will kill him and his whole stinking family."

Kirito told him if that included his own sister? That was when he ordered his thugs to come out of hiding, it was clear he hoped for him to accept the drink, which was no doubt poisoned, and the thugs would kill him, if his thugs could kill the best warrior in the castle, there would be no one that would resist him and he could get money from the rest of the towns in the castle.

A psychologist and a psychiatrist began to think about the real reason why this patient did not even try to wake up, no matter how much they tried to wake him, one made a mistake of trying to remove the nerve gear, but his heart rate began to drop at an incredible rate, it was a miracle that they managed to put it back on him. One said that maybe, just maybe he actually loved the other world a whole lot more than he did the one he was born in, that he would actually consider that one deep down to be his real world and this place was just a place in a dream.

The doctor looked at him and he said that that would mean he had more reasons for being over there and returning to the real world, and that made no sense, a kid his age was bound to have friends, a girlfriend or even relatives that he would miss, there was no way he was that detached from the real world. His aunt heard him and she began to cry, as he stopped crying she began to say, that it was true, his real parents were dead, and she had been lying to him his entire life. Maybe he was happier in that world, but it also means that she would never be able to apologize for the way she lied to him.

The doctors told her that she did what most wouldn't even consider doing, most people would just let the kid be taken by the government operated orphanage and let the kid end up in an unknown home, it was not her kid, or her responsibility. So what she did was merciful and kind so it was just a matter of explaining to the kid, that she did it not to traumatize him, and that he would feel like she felt, like he was a member of the family.

Kirito continue his position of the leader of the castle guard all the way till the end of the Beta and beyond it, it was only till the official launch that the Red King, ordered him to join with the invaders, and watched them closely, that he was now except from the morality system, so if he saw anyone or knew of anyone through his investigation that had killed any one in the castle, he was permitted to end that invader's life. The Red King told him that as far as they would know he would always be a green player.

When he asked what a player is? The Red King laughed and told him that was what the invaders called themselves, they actually believed the castle was a game. "But who will take care of our normal security, your majesty?" The Red King told him not to worry he actually managed to train his subordinates rather well. So there was nothing to worry about, hearing that made Kirito relax and asked if he could at least see his mother a few times, The King smiled and told him that he could use the secret path in the tower.

With a move of his hand the King changed the look of Kirito's armor to make it look like what other players would wear, but he was still dressed in all black. "Now my Black Knight, ensure that my castle is murderer free, and let them fear the consequences of killing anyone in my castle. But you must know that you must not reveal your true identity to anyone, your subordinate will take the role of the Black Knight"

He was sent to the town where the other players would appear at the start of their adventures. The town was no different from every other day for him, but the day in the other world launched the game, Kirito had to pretend to be just a normal Beta, for everyone around him this was an exciting new world they were entering for Kirito it was just another day in the flying castle Aincrad.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Sword Art Online in any format, this is a fan fiction

At first it felt weird to pretend to be yet another of these so called players. But as the day finally came he got used to it, to the point that he did act like a regular player. As the day came he was walking towards his favorite gear maintenance shop. The owner was an old friend of his, so he pretty much took care of his gear for an almost unbelievable low price, and it was because Kirito actually stopped a band of criminals from using his daughter to get money from him.

They basically promised the young woman a job, and the job was pretty easy, it was to walk around and hand out fliers to all the people in a plaza. But the thing is the fliers were fake, and they actually sent a letter to her father, the shop owner, that if he did not send an incredible amount of money, they would actually rape, and kill his child. Kirito was visiting the shop as the Black Knight to get some of his own armor repaired.

When he took his helm and armor off to ask for it to be repaired, the shop owner asked him to help him out, and he would actually pay him to rescue his daughter from the criminals that had pretty much tricked her. This all fell within the confines of his regular duties, so he agreed to help. He immediately sent out a call to all his subordinates to surround the plaza and do not let anyone in or out. His right hand man took charge and did as his leader commanded.

As the plaza was supposed to have more people at that time of day, but she was all alone. A man presented himself as Shiro and he told her he was the apprentice and right hand man of the Black Knight, that she was actually tricked by the group and that they planned to do harm to her father. He asked her where did the group usually meet. She was furious at what she heard and told him exactly the place and time that she would go to get more of the fake fliers.

Shiro sent the information to Kirito who walked into the building and waited to see the crooks, he would pretend to be the man with the money from the shop owner, and he did just that, and when the crooks were practically salivating over the amount of money they were going to get without anyone being the wiser, he took out both of his one handed swords, and attacked the entire group. There were no survivors, Kirito hated murderers and that was true, but for them to say they planned to rape her first, that pretty much sealed their fate.

As Shiro saw his leader and could tell what had happened, he asked if it would be alright with the Red King, and he told his student that it would be fine, he actually found a book full of pictures of other women who they had raped and killed. "The scum were murderers and rapist, his majesty will not even considered them people." Kirito took over and told his men to return to their regular patrols.

As he walked with the shop owner's daughter close to him, he saw her father run towards them, happy that his daughter was safe and that the criminals did no harm to her. He then asked the Black Knight how much did he owe him, and that was when Kirito told him that he owed him nothing at all. It was all part of his duty, and thus he owed him no money at all. That was the moment that the shop owner, and Kirito became friends.

"Say Kirito what are you going to do now?" He looked at the man and told him that he was not to disclose his past with any of the invaders. "You can trust me, I will use the generic dialog every shop owner like myself uses. They can't even tell the difference between one shop owner and the next." Kirito thanked him for keeping his secret. "Thanks for everything Leo, I don't think I would have gotten used to this without you and Luna."

"Think nothing of it, what are friends for." Kirito walked towards one of the fields and that was when a young man shouted for him to stop. He did and waited for the young man to catch up with him. "You seem to know you way around, are you one of the Betas?" Kirito told him that he indeed was. "Look, man. I am new to this game and I have no clue how thing work, how about you teach me the basics?"

Kirito had nothing better to do so he agreed to teach him the basics. "First you hold your weapon in th initial motion of an attack and hold it, let the blade glow, and when it pulses let the attack happen, and as long as you do that you don't need to worry about aiming your strike." The young man simply did not seem to grasp the idea, so he picked up a rock and he began the motion for an attack, the stone glowed and then it flashed and as it finished it went flying and it hit a boar right on his rear end, making the monster simply furious.

He charged at Kirito who held him in place with his own sword. Seeing it in action the young man did as he saw it, and true enough he killed the boar in a single hit, he got some exp and some col. He was really happy but then he asked why so little? Kirito had to ask what did he think he killed? The guy told him a mid level boss. "No, that was a boar, they are the weakest monster there is on this game."

"I am Kirito, and you are?" The young man got up on his feet, and rubbed the back of his head, "I am Klein, sorry I forgot to introduce myself with all the excitement." Kirito told him that it was no problem at all. He asked if he wanted to continue hunting? Klein wanting more tips agreed on the spot. "Thanks, Kirito thanks to you I will be able to help my friends too. But mind telling me what you think of this world?"

"This is a world that is so beautiful, that it can make you forget it's dangerous, a place where a single blade can take you as far as you desire." Klein told him that he sounded like he loved the castle for some odd reason, it was just an online game. "You feel like that for now, but if you think of it as a new life, you will find a lot more enjoyment from this place. This castle is alive, with people, animals, merchants, and sadly even criminals."

"So Kirito how far did you make it during the beta?" Kirito looked at him with an almost surprised look on his face. "Not that far, I only reached the 89th floor. I don't even know how far the other beta's reached." Klein could not believe what he heard. Klein was a reporter for a very popular MMO magazine, and if he saying was true. Kirito had explored more of the castle than any other beta.

"What made you play a virtual game for so long, that you reached higher than any other beta?" Kirito remembered the story that the Red King told him to use to explain his past. He used the part that he needed and answered. "A really lousy home and a family that every word that came out of their mouth, was either a lie or something close to a lie." Klein was not what anyone would call cold, but even him found the story a bit hard to swallow.

"So let me get this straigth, your parents told you a few white lies, and you instead of hearing them out, you played vr games for hours on end?" Kirito told him he had no parents at all. That was the very first lie his aunt told him. "What would you do if your entire life was based on one ever expanding lie?"

Klein had to admit he had no answer or clue how he would respond. "So for you this is a game, but to me this castle is both my home and my world.I had no life over in your world, so I made one here." Klein told him he might actually consider getting some counseling. Just as Klein was about to log off he looked rather upset.

He began to try and pulled down the main menu and looking for the log off button, and it simply was not there. When he tried a few times he asked Kirito to try and log out. Kirito knew very well that there was no log off button on any menu screen. But he could not reveal this information, since the Red King ordered him to keep it a secret,unless it was to save his own life.

He did the only thing he could, pretend that he was also taken by surprise. Just as they were talking about the possibility of it being a bug, they heard a large bell ring and were forcefully transported to the main plaza.

"Kirito, do you have any idea why we teleported here!?" Kirito told him that it was a forced teleportation, someone must have something real important to say, maybe it was about the log out button bug. Klein began to look around to see if anyone he knew was nearby, he saw his friends from his old guild, the one he had on a different mmo.

Kirito pointed to the red stain on the ceiling that normally was not visible through the clouds. He grabbed Klein shoulder and tried to get his attention. They both saw as the stain began to grow and drip almost like it was blood. The red mass took the form of a faceless game master. The game masters were normally support staff and they either looked like a wise old man, or a mature lady wearing glasses. This was not the case here.

"Greetings, and welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko, I created both the nerve gear and this world. Many of you are worried because you can not find the log out key on your menu settings. I will tell you that is no bug, the menu system was never meant to have such a key in the first place."

This made a large group of players completely freak. Some screamed that they had other things to do, others that they would not be able to attend their classes. Kayaba waited for everyone to just let out all their complaints before he continued.

"Also, their is no ressurection system, meaning if you health reaches zero you will die. At that point a strong electromagnetic signal will be transmitted through the nerve gear destroying your brain and ending you life in the real world."

Well if the fact they could not log out freaked out, you can imagine what their reaction to this was, the most mature and calmed player screamed obscenities that would make the most bad mouthed sailor blush.

"As to why would I do this, it's quite simple I wanted to create a world as real as possible. You could almost say that everyone present here has been reborn here in this world, do not fret all media outlets have been informed of the consequences of removing, tampering or breaking the nerve gear."

No one said a thing, they found the situation to be ridiculous. Some even tried to leave the plaza to find that the exits were blocked by invisible walls.

"Sadly, not everyone headed my warning, and as of right now 150 players have died, due to outside interference. But worry not it's not all bad news. Medical teams have been sent to your homes and your bodies taken to nearby hospitals, that will ensure your real bodies receive all necessary care and your you nerve gears have a constant supply of energy."

"Now the only thing you need to do is clear all 100 floors of this castle. When someone clears the las floor and defeats the final floor boss, every player will be logged out. Since this is sort of a birthday I have included a present in your inventory."

Everyone looked and found a mirror. In a flash of light everyone changed shapes as to what their real world bodies looked like, well all except Kirito, since he already looked like that, they light did show but he did not change like the other players. Some players had made female avatars while being guys, and pretending to date other players, and vice versa.

"This concludes the initial tutorial of Sword Art Online, and again welcome to the flying castle Aincrad, and enjoy you life in my world."

Kirito knew that obtaining resources was going to be a real battle, he tried to explain to Klein that they needed to leave now and head over to the next town. Klein told him that he couldn't he had old friends in the plaza and he could not simply abandoned them.

Kirito told him that making it to the next town with an extra person was going to be difficult, with a group of beginners was almost impossible. Klein told him not to worry, that thanks to his training he will teach the others what he learned from him.

Kirito began to walk towards the exit of the plaza and there he found a scared young lady, she was so scared that she screamed when he tried to get her attention, "I am Kirito, if you want live come with me. I will teach you all I know on how to survive this place."

She must have been happy to hear that, since she thanked him and hugged him. "Thank you for your kindness, Kirito. My name is Asuna. I will be under your care till you no longer wish my company." Kirito took her to a nearby shop who was owned by one of his friends, they got new gear for her and plenty of potion and ingredients.

Thus began the adventure of Kirito and Asuna, at the start they were complete strangers but many years later they would always laugh about their first meeting. But for now let's see how much Asuna can learn from Kirito and he will learn thanks to her.


	3. Chapter 3

This in only a fan fiction, I do not own Sword Art Online in any format.

Life can be strange, take turn and directions you would never expect. If you told Kiri to that he was going to be a player, and teach a lady player how to fight and survive in this flying castle, he would have asked you to go to a healer, because you would clearly be either sick or insane. As far as Kiri to could remember Aincrad was his home, born and raised by his loving mother and one young sister. But here he was expkaining Asuna the basic training regiment of a foot soldier in the Royal guard.

"As I was telling you training your skills is one thing, train your body as well. Training is the way of life for warriors like us. Grow to overconfident, or underestimate an enemy and you are as good as dead." Asuna understood that, what she didn't understand is, why was she using skills at imaginary targets.

"Practice makes perfect, a few hundred feet from here is a hidden dungeon, it is called the duality dungeon, and it is not on any map. We will get our one and only weapon there, it will saves us a small fortune in the long run." Asuna stopped her last attack and looked at Kirito. "You must be a beta, well what so especial about the dungeon?" Kiri to finished his last attack and told her to sit down.

"There are two dungeons in one, you do them back to back. Meaning you do one going in,and as soon as it finishes the other starts in the way out. The first is the black sword, the other is called the white shield. In the first you must defeat 100 enemies so that the boss appears. The boss fights a duel with you. The other you must defend against 100 attacks, the boss will then ask you a question."

Asuna understood then that the weapons were the reward from each boss. The reason he had them use skills that they found comfortable, was maybe because the weapon the boss gave depend on what skills were used most. "Couldn't someone kill us and steal the weapons, they must sell for a lot of col." Kirito told her that these weapons were living weapons, they grew stronger as the user did, and no they could never sell them, because they would always return to the user, if they took one and ran, the weapon would return to his chosen warrior, or be destroyed when said warrior died.

"The test is harsh because this weapons are capable of being the strongest, and because they are loyal to their warrior. A true friend in any battle." Asuna asked why they were waiting, he told her that they were already at the entrance. They were just waiting for it to open. She then saw as the sun went down in the horizon, and as the last rays shown they hit the wall on the raised platform behind them With a big release of wind the door opened.

They both walked into the door and it slammed shut. Then they saw a hundred sword wielding skeletons. They were all running towards them in a long corridor, the only light came from the torches in the walls. Kirito calmly walked and with Asuna they began to defeat the monsters. Each time they defeated a monster the door on the other end of the corridor began to open. It had a symbol of a skull with two sword right below the chin.

Little by little they fought the skeletons and walked to the slowly opening door. The skeletons did not stop even as they saw their kind die. It was almost as if the skeletons wanted to die. As they reached the door the last skeleton died and the door opened. They walked inside, and the room had one small desk, with a man sitting in a very comfortable chair.

"You sure took your sweet time getting here, Hel was getting mighty lonely without you. But I will not simply give her back you must take her back from me." Asuna did not understand why the monster was talking, a language she could understand. He was a tall muscular man, wearing black rusted armor, the helm looked like a human skull.

"Sorry for the wait, Loki. But you know I would come and get her." The monster began to laugh, and in a gesture he made the duel challenge notice appear before Kirito. The room changed to a large open area as soon as he accepted. The duel was a first strike duel. The two fought with everything they had, Loki even threw dirt hoping to blind Kirito. But sure enough as he threw the dirt Kirito threw a small rock knocking the sword out of his opponent's hand. He was declared a winner as he hut him with his sword.

"That was pretty low of you, Loki. But I guess I am one to talk. Don't worry I plan to make your little girl, get to fight a lot more than last time." Asuna asked who was Kirito talking about. Loki explained that Kirito had been the only one to be find his hidden dungeon. He told her that he created just three living weapons. He'll, Fenrir and Jormungand. Hel was a ever transforming blade, Fenrir was a large hammer that too could change shape, Jormungand is a whip that could burn through anything.

The blade looked pretty happy to be held by Kirito. The best friend a swordsman could ever ask for. "Now you just need to signal that the second part can begin. I just hope you didn't do anything to upset Freya. I remember how mad she can get." Loki laughed and pushed a stone and told him, that if he still remembered then this next part shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

Sure enough a hundred archers were ready for him. As the two began to walk towards the exit, Kirito heard the first arrow head straight towards Asuna. With a regular sword he was a magnificent swordsman, with Hel he was a force to be feared by his enemies, the sword split in two and became two magnificent blades. With a sword in each hand he struck down the arrow. Asuna also tried to strike down one, but it simply was too fast, this made her ask the obvious question, "What level are you?"

Kirito took down another arrow, and began to think really hard about the answer, they were half way to the exit, and he decided to hell with it he was going to tell the truth, or at least about his level, "I'm not that high, my level is 78." Asuna was taken by surprise, he was 74 levels higher than her. "So since we formed the party, how much exp points have you gained from us defeating monsters?" Kirito did not answer just made a hand sign that said it all. A big fat zero.

He struck down the las arrow, and she checked her status display, she had gained three level in the corridor. A very beautiful knight showed up and did not look at all happy to see him. "So happy to see you, Freya. But those were more than 100 arrows. I would expect that from Loki, but never you." She simply had to double the number of arrows, since he was the only one actually managing to do anything against them. Kirito told her that his friend was not that high in level, that it would be unfair to think she could do something that took him a full day to figure out.

"All the excuses in the world, and that is the best you could come up with?" Asuna asked if there was any personal reason that she was so harsh on him. Freya actually smiled as she said that. She indeed have a very personal reason and the cause of her anger just asked her to know that very reason. Freya simply smiled, and while trying to look calm she answered. "Truth be told, I was expecting Kirito to solo this dungeon, like he did last time. I even made this special armor set for him, but now that there are two completing this dungeon, well it pretty much means I will not get to give him the armor, instead I will have to give you my weapon, if you answer my question."

"I don't want to waste time, so go ahead and ask." Freya could simply consider her reaction, the impatience of youth, or she didn't like her surroundings. "What walks on four in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening?" Asuna didn't even need to think about it, she answered man. Freya laughed as it was just an icebreaker question, to get her more relaxed. "It is the most precious treasure, even when found it does not last, what is it?" Asuna told her that she already answered her first question, but she would answer again. The answer was love.

Freya liked her answers and she took something from her belt and threw it at her. It was a rapier. A simply beautiful blade, Freya told her name was Urd. She looked hard at Kirito and smiled to see that Hel had changed to her standard form. She thanked her for the weapon, and when she was closed she was pulled closer, before she could even blink the hug was over. She did not understand why would Freya do that, till she saw her saying the words to check her items later. I guess it was useful that Asuna could read lips.

The two went to a nearby hunting field to let Asuna get used to her new sword. Hel had decided to twlk with Kirito in spirit form. "Any reason you are so willing to help he?" Kirito told her that much against his better judgement, he was ordered to live as a player, having her nearby made it easier for him to blend in, he also told her that some of these players or invaders engaged in non-sanctionec murder and the Red King wanted this disrespectful killers dealt with.

"Kirito, who are talking to? I have been trying to get your attention forna good ten minutes." Rats, Kirito knew he forgot to tell Asuna something. Might as well teach her, and let those two start a friendship now or pay the consequences later. He told her to fellow him to a rest area and told her to sit down."Unlike normal weapons, living weapons have a spirit and personality like us. Now take your blade hold it where you can see it, and greet her, just like you would me."

Asuna did so and the spirit of her rapier appeared a very exotically dressed lady, with a really good figure but her hair was two colors, most was black but had a streak of white to one side of her hair. "Took you long enough, How many times do I have to scream, I am no good with slashing moves. Pierce, stab, poke, which ever you prefer but no slashing." Kirito told Asuna that forging a friendship with her blade would make her stronger. She asked if anyone else could see Urd. He told her they could if she told her materialization words, or if she needed to save her friend's life.

She asked if she could meet Hel. Kirito told her that she was shy, in truth she wanted to see her in action and maybe get used to working with her own blade first, deep down she did not want to be pestered for gossip about Kirito and what he had done before meeting her. Those times were precious to her, and so she wanted to keep them private, Kirito was the only one that had ever been kind to her after all.


	4. Chapter 4

I do not own Sword Art Online in any format, this is fan fiction

Poorly written fan fiction at that, but still I hope some of you enjoy it.

Kirito was getting down right tired of waiting for the players to get over their pity parties and do something to solve their situation. Kirito was having a very nice meal with Asuna at a local dinner. The owner knew Kirito quite well, and often gave him a discount on his meals. The man was the retired captain of the Royal Guard, and Kirito's former mentor. The red haired waitress was his daughter and she still had a bit of a crush on the once feared Black Knight.

Kirito was explaining to Asuna, that these people needed to be more organized, that they needed to get serious about clearing floors, after two months and the way to the second floor was still closed off. Some references to getting their act together, stop mopping around, and grow a backbone were mentioned here and there, Asuna simply told him that they were a whole lot lower in level that he was, he simply answered that comment by calling them excuses of the lazy.

"Asuna, I started at level one, just like everyone else. I just put in the time and effort to level up, and do so in a safe, efficient manner. But I guess I was expecting too much from them, they just want to sit on their behinds and let someone else save them. I guess that someone is going to need to show them that it can be done." Asuna finished her cup of juice and got up from the table, "And that someone is us. You know where the boss room is?"

He told her he knew the general area where it was, it could have changed locations, from his Beta days. They paid for their meal, and decided to walk towards the place the boss room was during the Beta. They had to do over a dozen quests, killed enough monsters to even the most avid hunter green with envy. The pelts and bones fetched a decent price by blacksmiths and tailors.

"Kirito, don't you think we should tell others where the boss room was during your time as a Beta?" Kirito felt bad about continuing to lie to Asuna, if he told her the truth however he would be disobeying a direct order from the Red King. He knew very well were the first floor boss was, he was his oldest friend, and even went to the party to celebrate his promotion to floor boss. How could he forget? He got so stinking drunk that his mother was mad as all hell, when he finally got home.

Even if he wanted to tell her how would he do it, 'Asuna, know so much about this place because I was born here, oh and by the way I am a fire breathing dragon, so if you need to start a campfire or roast something, I am the guy to asdk.' If Kirito said that several things were more than likely going to happen. First she would think that he was insane, second when she figured that he was telling the truth, she either would never speak or be in the same party ever again, or try to kill him for exp points. None of these outcomes seem desirable by any stretch of the imagination.

"Asuna we can take care of this on our own, why would you want to involve a band of weaklings? You know that we would have to do most of the fighting, and waste precious resources just keeping them alive. And for what? They will take all the credit, gain a lot of exp and cost us to use most if our healing crystals, and they will not even be grateful." Asuna told him that they will try and say that they were only out for their own glory. Kirito simply looked at her and while holding her hand he said that he didn't care at all.. The pot calling the kettle black. These people will always think they were as selfish as themselves.

Asuna knew that Kirito was right, but it sure didn't feel good. There was only so much they could do alone. "Kirito at some point we are going to either have to join a guild or make one ourselves. Since we will need to train pretty hard, why not make our guild and base it on an honor principal." Kirito had nothing against it. "So what would we call this guild?" Asuna said that all members would make a blood oath of loyalty to the guild. "A blood oath.. So I guess that would make us the Knights of the Blood Oath." Asuna loved the name.

Well all that was well and good, but they still need to make a name for themselves, to prove their worth with their might. "So until we register our name, we will do everything alone. The boss room should be close by..." Sure enough, the boss room door was in front of them in all it's horrific glory. To call the thing a door was being generous, it would scare just about anyone. They both pushed the large stone door, trying not to touch the sinister looking carving on it.

Kirito had a real tough time, keeping himself from laughing. He almost felt that he cracked a rib. The boss was a giant monster by the title of The Kobold King. In truth this guy was once a guy who loved to cook, and grow flowers. He was having a hard time not laughing because the last time he saw him, he had a frying pan and wooden spatula, and was wearing a yellow flowery apron. The boss was smiling when he saw Asuna so close to Kirito. If he could he would tease his old friend about finally getting himself a girlfriend.

Hel seemed to sense that and was glowing brigth red, she was really angry. Asuna took care of the kobold guards, who in truth were waitresses in his friend's restaurant. The fight between the two and the boss did not take long. Hel had the pleasure of delivering the final blow, and thus Kirito won the right to pick his bonus item, he picked a nice scabbard for Hel, he was already wearing very good armor already. But He'll told him to instead pick up an armor for Asuna, her survival would mean his own as well, and that was more important to her than her own comfort.

Asuna was quite happy to accept the armor, it nearly doubled her defense points. At the same time in the town square a group of players were discussing about where the first floor boss was, and how to locate the boss room. The meeting was going nowhere since a real crook by the name of Kibaou demanded that all Betas give up all their col and items, but as soon as he finished saying his demand, there was a system announcement.

"Floor one boss has been defeated, by a party under the name of Knights of the Blood Oath, portal to floor two is now open." The message repeated several times, before Kibaou reacted in a very expected way. He began screaming a long string of swear words, it was simply embarrassing to see him throw such a tantrum. "So let me get this straight, while we spent our time arguing what to do, some group got their act together and decided to outright beat the first floor boss. Then they went on their way, they even have a guild name planned out. I don't know about you, but I am joining that guild as soon as it is registered. These guys clearly doesn't mess around."

On the second floor Kirito finally decided to rent a small house, it was cheaper that staying in an inn in the long run. He did decide also to visit his old friend, he told Asuna that he needed to do something alone. That gave her the chance to try and get to know Urd a little better. As soon as he was near a reflective surface he used the pass phrase. The way to the supposed monster side of Aincrad opened. As soon as he stepped through he went to look for his friend's cafe.

"You are rather mean, Kirito. I don't mind losing but that final blow was a low blow for you." Kirito was quick to remind him, that he had said that in love and war anything was fair. The guy did not like to reminded of that fact, he wanted to get even and asked him if he could still breath fire, or did he forget how to do that. Kirito decided to teach his old friend once again, the reason why you should never make fun of a dragon. He took a deep breath and it was only because one of his waitresses warned him, that the Kirito's old friend did not end up as roasted as a turkey dinner.

The guy simply held his largest frying pan and deflected the fire straight into his oven. The crowd loved the little display. "Thanks,Kirito my old oven has been growing colder lately. It sure is nice to have a friend like you around." He decided to pack him a full dinner for two and told him that he should visit his family, they probably missed him. Kirito thanked his old friend and decided to do just that. Hel was not happy at all, she could never get along his sister, and Kirito could never figure why.

When he walked towards his family's home, he soon realized that they made a few changes since he was last there. For one the ground entrance was no longer there, there was a small lake of molded lava around the entire estate and there were sentinel guards watching the property. It was clear that he needed to fly to get in. Chanting the words he learned from us mother he changed to that of his dragon form. The scales had a dark color to them, and his eyes were red as the color of rubies. He flew into the high entrance to his mother's room.

As he entered he changed back to his human form thanks to the glyphs on the walls. "I know I haven't been back lately, but this is a rather cold reception, especially with the trouble the new added security caused me." A very beautiful young lady came into her room and hugged Kirito. " It could hardly be my fault or your sister's, we had to many attacks form the friends of the criminals you punished during your Black Knight days. But it is good to see that you are well, son."

"Mother, I am in terrible need of your advice, I have a problem that I need your opinion on.. It is quite embarrassing to say the least." The lady dragon told him to sit down and told his sister to wait in her den. It was clear that his sister was listening on their conversation from a hidden location, and it must be a good location, since his detection abilities were second to none. "I will talk with you later, sister. I think we have much to discuss."

As soon as he was told that they could talk, he began to tell him that his current assignment had initially forced him to take a human as a party member, this helped him slowly become used to how these human invaders think, and react. But this created a small problem, the more time he spends with her, which is most of the day, he has been feeling emotionally interested in her, he began thinking of things that could make her feel happy, and even noticed how she looked.

The lady dragon began to laugh and had a smile on her face, "So my eldest child has finally fallen in love.. It was about time, so tell me what this potential mate of yours looks like?" Kirito could not stop blushing and stuttering, when he finally relaxed he began telling her about her skill with a blade, managing a budget, her cooking, and finally how she looked like. "Well my advice is quite simple, if you are sure you can trust her, and that she us also in love with you, You should tell her the truth, and bring her here, so I can finally meet the lady that managed to make my child fall in love."


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own Sword Art Online in any format, this is fan fiction.

Kirito for the first time in his life wished that Cardinal had actually not made that announcement, but then again when has she ever done anything that didn't end up causing him a headache. He could never figure what was the reason Cardinal loved to cause trouble for him. He just barely managed to return to his hotel room, only to find Asuna being chased by a group of players. "Stop chasing my friend and tell me what thus is about." The group told him that she said she was a member of the Knights of the Blood Oath, and their is no way she was an actual member. "She us the vice commander in fact. I should know."

"Really, the who the bloody hell are you supposed to be!?" Kirito did not like his tone, but pretended he was calm. "I am Kirito and I am the commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath, I think you owe my second in command an apology." Some of the men flat out called him a liar, some other guy promised to let them join if they gave him half of their col, when they did he used a crystal and teleported. "I would not ask for monetary donations to join us, all that wish to join must know that we maintain the peace and protect the innocent. We swear an oath on our life in blood of loyalty to one another till Senate free from this place."

"So that Kibaou was using your group's name to swindle us out of our hard earned col." Kirito began to tell them of the harsh life it was to be a member, and if the training regiment recruits had to complete. Only those recruits that managed to complete the training could make the oath. "Our group is not for the light hearted or slackers. But I would not demand something I do not demand of myself."

When he finished saying that, most of the people still didn't trust him, he could be a pretender and if they joined his guild, the real commander would seek to take retribution for believing a punk, even if a confident punk, pretended to be him, and they were dumb enough to believe him. Some others wanted to gun down Kibaou and get their col back or at least make him suffer.

"Well, you can sign me up. Name is Agil, I use an Axe and my business sense. I guess you might call me a merchant by trade." Kirito saw another player behind him. "I am Diabel, I was getting people together to try and beat the first floor boss, but you beat us to the punch. I like the idea of being a knight, so sign me up as well." Asuna looked happy to that they had gained two new party members, the guild was one step closer to be an official guild.

Kirito began to teach them their training regiment. You could almost see the fear on Diabel's face. He was to train with Kiriro and Agil with Asuna. Diabel tried to switch saying if he was truly comfortable leaving Asuna with the big muscular guy. "That won't be a problem, I am happily married. If anything she is safer with me than you." Diabel clearly wanted a chance to hit on Asuna, she however made it quite clear training first, social life later.

"And here I was thinking that you were the disciplinarian in this guild." Kirito told him they could talk while killing a few hundred monsters. Diabel after 100 monsters came to understand, Kirito was not a disciplinarian, he was the slave driver. After 200 they took a brief rest, Diabel was breathing pretty hard, Kirito did not even look winded. "So how come you are not tired?" Kirito looked at him and smiled, "With monster this low in level? You do realize you are the one getting all the exp points right?"

That made Diabel ask him some pretty common and expected questions. "So what level are you and how high did you reach in the Beta?" Kirito had a feeling that he would ask those questions, it was a good thing the Red King just happen to provide him with answers for such and many other questions. "78, and I got to that same floor during the Beta." Diabel seemed quite happy for some reason, for two actually. On the one hand hr had s strong leader, and on the other he must know where all those boss rooms where. He soon felt that last idea disappear. "But you know that they changed the locations of most floor boss rooms, but you should know that since you are a Beta too."

The rest of the day was spent killing monsters, in the end he told Diabel exactly what he was doing wrong, and what he needed to do to correct it. Diabel also saw living proof of the strength and viciousness of their leader. As they walked back he asked him a hypothetical question. What would he do if he ever met a confirmed player killer? Diabel hoped he would say that he would send to prison, but that is not the answer he got. "Did you what I did to those monsters, right?" Diabel nodded his head. "Same thing I would do to the player killer, only I won't be as nice and friendly as I was with the monsters."

Diabel began to follow Kirito back to the agreed meeting point. "Kirito, if you kill a player killer, they will die for real?" Kirito did not answer until he was seated at a park bench, "The same applies to the victims, these killers killed players knowing that they were ending a person's life. If I see a player kill another and it was not in self defense, I will kill that murderer and it will bother me less, than killing the monsters we just killed."

Diabel decided to switch topics, since the current topic was a little too cruel for his liking. "What benefits does our training have?" Kirito looked at him and told him to sit down. "First we are slowly gathering the col needed to register our guild, and obtain a base if operations. Second, provides food, shelter and much needed equipment and items, and on a personal level you are learning your limitations and to fight efficiently. You need to also learn to be aware of your surroundings. You didn't hear when Agil dropped his axe, or when Asuna was searching the bag she is carrying to see if she had enough food for our dinner."

Diabel was stunned and in a gesture to check, sure enough. Asuna had a bag that looked like had a few sandwiches, and Agil was breathing hard leaning against a wall and his axe was flat on the ground. 'He was explaining the value of our training, but he was also paying attention to what was happening all around us. Is he expecting an ambush? We are in a safe zone after all. So that means he is doing using his detection skills constantly.'

"I see you got dinner ready, and gave Agil a nice workout. Any problems Azuna?" Asuna smiled and told him they found the boss room on their way back. "I guess that is why Agil looks like he ran all the way here." She pretty much wanted to go and clear the boss with Kirito and have Agil, and Diabel waitmin town. But Kirito told her that they could try and sneak in the boss room, when they were not looking, and let's face it, they would lose the first two members if their guild, besides could she deal with the guilt of them dying because she rushed things?

Asuna told him that she simply wanted to be free of the death game she felt trapped in. "Instead of thinking it as a trap, why don't you think of it as you have a life here in this flying castle. It should make you feel better." It was something she never thought about, but he was right, train these two for the next floor, and when they were ready hit the floor boss on this floor with every member present like a good guild should.

It turns out Agil and Diabel did sneak off on their own, and thanks to them being quick learners they advanced a few levels on their own. Both Agil and Diabel wanted to be back with their loved ones just as much as anyone. The two teachers gave them a severe talking to not to take unnecessary risks, they both promised that they would be careful and follow their leader's example. Thanks to this, Kirito knew that they both had seen him go and solo a field on the previous floor.

Thanks to that mentality and dedication the two gained 10 levels in about a week of training and solo hunting. The entire guild did something that caught him by surprise, Asuna had made some knew gear for them, and had his modified. It was now white with red highlights except for Kirito who was red with white highlights, she joked that he was liable to jump off aincrad if he had to wear as much white as they did. This caused them to laugh, all except Kirito. This armor set was given by the Red King when he started this new mission, he wore black to remind him of his true role as the Black Knight.

"Asides from some new gear, after we finish with the next boss, we will go back to officially register our guild. But make no mistake this fight will be tough, I expect you all to survive to see the official start of our guild." Agil shouted that he was going to be there, no monster was going to stop him from being present for that. Diabel said that he would not dishonor his leader, teacher and friend by dying to a lowly floor boss.

The group beat a great deal of monsters on their way to the boss room. It was almost as if the floor boss knew that they were a threat and decided to put more monsters to make the way to his room that much tougher. The reason was quite clear when Kirito saw her. The floor boss hadnto be her of all people. She had been an old flame of Kirito, they broke up when he was appointed the Black Knight instead of her father. The demanding hours that his promotion, sort of made dating impossible, and now here he was going around with this female invader, eating her food, living practically under the same roof. To say she was mad would be like calling an ocean a pond.

"It is just me or did everyone feel the temperature of the boss room drop, and I mean a lot." The group had barely stepped into the boss room when Sgil just had to mention that. Kirito had a feeling who this floor boss was and as Agil finished saying that all the torches on the walls began to burn. Their was a woman dressed in sky blue armor, holding a trident of all things. Kirito could not belive his bad luck, her hair was longer and done in a pony tail. Diabel simply stared at her chest and the sheer size of her breasts, she was an E cup easily.

Kirito told them to attack while the monster lady was focused on him. The strange thing to Asuna is that none of her minions were with her. But they eouldn't be for this fight since this was personal. 'So my old lover has found someone new!? Kirito are you that needy for female companionship that you have to shack up with an invader of all things!? Were is the proud dragon I once loved so!?'

"Guys is it me or does she seem solely focused on our esteemed leader?" Asuna yelled at Diabel that if he had time to mention the obvious, he should better spend that time attacking the boss, Kirito had told them to attack when her focus was on him. She explained that he was clearly pulling major aggro from the boss and should not waste this opportunity. The boss was defeated screaming things in a strange language at Kirito till she was defeated. 'For me to have to fight Emilia of all people, are all my old friends floor bosses or just those that were once important to me.'


End file.
